I got out of the shower in my process of getting ready to go over to see my father for his Birthday. I noticed my phone had gone off, so I checked it, and there was a text from my mother at 11:35 am, it read: DAD JUST TOOK A SHOWER & IT WORE HIM OUT. HE SAID NO COMPANY BUT I THINK HE NEEDS SOMETHING ELSE TO THINK ABOUT FOR AWHILE. HE SAID HE JUST...
It's Saturday October 26th and today I went to purchase my father a birthday card. As I am in the store looking at the cards, I begin to pick them up to read. There are the small cheap funny version, the large ornate versions, and then there are others that play music or have some saying in them. As I begin to read a few of the cards, it begins to sink in, this may be...
I stopped early at my parents home this morning to see my father prior to his port placement. When I arrived,the joke was on me, they were already gone. I called and asked my mother where they were, she informed me that the hospital asked them to be there 2 hours ahead of his port being placed. I spoke to my father and told him I loved him, and I would see him later. Around 3:00...
My phone goes of at 4:59 pm and I look to see who it is. It is my mother. Text message reads: PORT WILL BE PLACED TOMORROW @ 10 WITH CHEMO TO FOLLOW. INTERVENTIONALIST DOING IT. I respond: OKAY. HOW'S DAD DOING TODAY? Mother replies: ABOUT THE SAME JUST MADE HIM THE DRINK WITH PROTEIN YOU GAVE HIM AND BANANA. Me: ARE THEY GOING TO ADDRESS THE ASCITES? Mother: THAT IS A GOOD QUESTION. NAVIGATOR SAID WE WOULD SEE...
Today is Monday October 21st and my father had an appointment to see the Nephrologist. This was one of the first appointments I was not able to attend, but I know he is in good hands being that my mother is a nurse. Nephrologist was checking on my father's right kidney, due to having a stricture of the ureter, and what was the trigger to finding the lesion in the pancreas, and his eventual diagnosis. So...
Stopped in at my parents this evening after running some errands. As I walked into the living room my father sat there in his big recliner. His hair was all disheveled, thinning still, and when I leaned down to give him a hug and a kiss I noticed that his skin was damp from perspiration. I asked y father how he was feeling. His response was simple, "If I didn't have this pain in the front...
Spoke to my father today to get an update on his appointment. The healthcare system punted my fathers care back to his primary care physician. The appointment went pretty well. They physician told my father that his sweats are probably related to his cancer, the enormity of all the information he was just hit with, the amount of change his mind and body are going through, and the fact that he is just not eating and...
It is Thursday, day 23, of my fathers experience into the world of cancer. Today he begins to write about his own experience in meeting chemotherapy; seeing the relationship they will develop, and the style of dance they will embark on together. I look at the clock and it says 2:30pm. A manager walks into the office and asks how I am doing. I respond by saying I am hanging in there and just taking it...
It is the evening of October 15th, day 21, and I sit in my office looking at the pictures on the wall, looking out my office window into the dark sky. My thoughts are clouded by the events of today. My father only has 6 to maybe 8 months left. I don't want to focus on the numbers, but it is all my mind keeps playing around in my mind. I continue to think if there...
"I shall be telling this with a sigh Somewhere ages and ages hence: Two roads diverged in a wood, and I— I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference." ~Robert Frost My father sits at the head of my parents round oak table. I sit to my fathers left, my mother sits to his right. My father begins by stating that he is not going to take the more aggressive chemotherapy, the 5FU. "I don't...